First off I love and fully support what NETC is doing with Geiger counter readings, and would love to contribute readings from my own location.

However, the instruments we have do not provide a clear picture of what is happening. They are extremely useful for personal safety, but they can't tell us what exact isotopes or external forces (I'm an astronomer, the universe does occasionally supply us with unexpected and copious amounts of focused radiation of many different energy levels) are causing our counters to ping more. There could be a local release, there could be an accident that happens while our focus is on the giant open sore of Japan. The only way to really know what is exactly in your environment - the abundance of every isotope of every element - is to delve into the world of liquid scintillation and mass spectroscopy. I've priced some of this equipment out, and it's pretty much the cost of a house for most people. A mass spectrometer from PerkinElmer (http://www.perkinelmer.com/default.xhtml) capable of detecting all isotopes of all elements we'd want to detect is about 110k USD. No website aside from ebay posts prices for this stuff. I was asked when my grant money would come in. There is a giant disconnect between the price of collecting data with a Geiger counter, and basically anything further I could find.

So, I began looking for specific things, like tritium detectors. Those also seem to be pretty specialized. Check out the selection at https://www.berthold.com/en/rp/lb-110-tritium-monitor. Imagine setting one of those up in your living room, eh?

What I want this thread to be, for those of you that want to know more beyond pings on your GC, is what resources you come across for affordable gear, or local labs you can send samples to. Society thusfar seems to focus this equipment and data on very specific fields, but in this time it seems more appropriate than ever to get as many samples as possible and open them up to the public.

Of course I couldn't open the topic without contributing something. This guy seems to have a decent amount of equipment! http://www.youtube.com/user/antiprotons

First, I believe like many experts that there is NO SAFE LEVEL OF RADIATION.



Our first goal in avoiding the radiation is to know that it is present in levels above our areas normal range, not what type of isotope it is. Geiger counters give us quick detections of wide ranges of energy ranges, geiger counters do a good all around job of that since most geiger counters detect beta & gamma. Scintillation counters do not detect beta radiation. Lets look at radon for example, it is most of the time natural but all governments have agreed that it is NOT SAFE and although they have set what they call safe levels for it, they will not disagree that less of it is best. It is important to note that when the geiger counter is connected to a graphing program like NETC, the trends/patterns are much more easily seen.



This is why we need more private geiger counter sites setup all over the U.S. like Japan now has setup. As we trace detection timestamps from station to station we can get a better picture of where the radiation started from and where it traveled/traveling to. If using we see the radiation (using NETC) moving in our direction, we can better prepare for it. For example shutting the windows or even driving out of the path of the plume. If it is from a CME/sun spot or something natural/universe the same rise/trend should be seen on many stations with the same timestamp.



If you were on a beach searching the sand for metal you would use a metal detector first and shovel second for closer inspection. We are doing the same thing here by using a geiger counter first to detect the radiation and then a scintillation counter for closer inspection.

Soil samples can then quickly taken before leaving the area and later mailed off for testing by someone who not only has access to the higher end scintillation counter equipment but also the knowledge to use it correctly.

When I detect higher than normal levels of radiation in my area, my kids are not allowed to go outside and play. I do not have the time or equipment to figure out 100% what type of radiation it is and even if I did, I would still have the kids come in the house because no level is safe. They can go outside when it drops back down to our areas normal level, even though that is not 100% safe... it is the best I can expect to see.

This exactly! Or analyzing our used filters if we pick up anything hot. Does anyone know of such a lab? They must exist. I'll begin searching and getting prices, and posting my findings if I can locate one that's affordable.

Pertaining to the beach, the number 1 concern should be , How much radiation is left on the land after high tide has receded. Radiation can then dry and become airborn, with an onshore flow, the land inland from the beach will be increasingly contaminated. Its very probable that Japan knows this also .

Right, and if you follow the last link I posted, the gentleman there uses gamma ray spectroscopy as a way of determining what isotopes are likely present. I'm actually looking into getting the equipment he was using now.

If you have not yet seen this video showing higher background levels of radiation found on the beach on the West Coast, it is well worth your viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcQLxT49ZP0

I did, and to be honest I don't know what to think of it because so little data is provided. For instance, I didn't know about Radon washout in rain until recently. What processes are there on beaches that could cause higher readings? I'm not an expert. Also, the Farallon Islands are a well known nuclear dump site. Read the "Nuclear Waste Dump" section at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands. It is good to know that there are elevated readings so you don't let your kids play in that sand, but singling out Fukushima as the main contributor seems like a blind assumption with no supporting facts. Scintillating counters could be used to produce a spectrograph of the energy levels of the radiation found in samples, and identify the isotopes present. If there are isotopes that are shorter lived than the ones that could be present at the Farallon site, that would be a good start.

To keep this on topic, here is a good system you could use to produce a gamma spectrograph of sampled sand; the UCS30. http://www.spectrumtechniques.com/spec_systems.htm

I am waiting for a quote for a UCS30-4K right now, and I'm not terribly far from that beach. If it doesn't cost as much as a new car, I'll go get some samples from that beach and analyze them.

To augment the gamma spectrographs produced by the UCS30, I've also asked for a quote for a multilabel liquid scintillator from Hidex. Behold!

http://www.hidex.com/products.aspx?

I will post their asking price when I get a quote. The one I'm looking at is this guy: http://www.hidex.com/media/8046/triathler2009.pdf

-Advanced Spectrum Analysis using a built-in multichannel analyzer (would be really nice if I could use the UCS-30 for that, it might have more channels).
-Alpha/beta seperation.
-Soil/water sampling is explicitly mentioned, as well as wipe tests. Can already see doing a wipe test on the air filter in my car.

The drawback to liquid scintillation counting is that you need to put your samples in a solution that causes luminescence when excited by alpha/beta/gamma energy, so you must continually purchase liquid scintillation cocktails and maintain a supply of clean sample containers.